Babysitting rates across the country infographic

[Arcadia]

Might not be very accurate but still fun to read. My area is easily that rate too.

http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2013/03/25/san-francisco-has-highest-babysitting-rates-in-the-country/

[NotSoObvious]

Yep. Pretty accurate to me.

[TravelingChris]

My older dd did babysitting in the DC area for 10 an hour for one child. That ended in 2011 when we moved here so it could be more expensive now.

[Unicorn.]

And we wonder why some people can't get off of Welfare. Min. wage is way less than the cost for a per hour babysitter, we (collective we) don't want to raise min. wage, and yet we (collective) want babysitters to make a min. of $10 hr. How are single moms, or low income 2 parent families, supposed to hire a sitter so they can work?

 

Dh should forget being a ps teacher, and go be a nanny! They get paid vacation!

[QueenCat]

And we wonder why some people can't get off of Welfare. Min. wage is way less than the cost for a per hour babysitter, we (collective we) don't want to raise min. wage, and yet we (collective) want babysitters to make a min. of $10 hr. How are single moms, or low income 2 parent families, supposed to hire a sitter so they can work?

 

Dh should forget being a ps teacher, and go be a nanny! They get paid vacation!

 

Daycare rates tend to be less than by the hour babysitters. At least it was that way where I lived when I had young children... At the time, I paid around $5/hour for a sitter. The daycare center ds went to when I was on bedrest cost $100/week. That breaks down to $20/day, or less than $3/hour per child. We were in a moderate cost of living area.

[xixstar]

Matches up for my area, my daughter got $15/hour once and keep telling her too bad she doesn't like babysitting, could be a great option for her since majority of my friends have young children and would love a sitter from a similar parenting-style family. But more like $12/hour seems pretty typical too. Reminds me I'm thankful to have a teenager in the house along with young children, not sure what we'll do once she heads off to college, guess never go out again. Better get a good year of dates in before that happens, lol.

[butterflymommy]

 

Daycare rates tend to be less than by the hour babysitters. At least it was that way where I lived when I had young children... At the time, I paid around $5/hour for a sitter. The daycare center ds went to when I was on bedrest cost $100/week. That breaks down to $20/day, or less than $3/hour per child. We were in a moderate cost of living area.

 

 

From my reading on babycenter, the general cost of daycare is about 900/ month for average care for one child, the "better" centers go up from there. A lot of the moms are working to pay for daycare, with the hope of being paid more in the future, or just not wanting gaps in their resumes. They see it as a four year loss until the child can go to public K. Obviously those moms are married or partnered and their partner's pay goes to household expenses. Most of the single moms simply can't afford it or have to live with parents in less than ideal situations while their paycheck goes solely to daycare.

[TravelingChris]

I think this was a survey of babysitting for occasional times, not full time. Normally, full time babysitters take care of more than one family's kids, though not as many as a daycare center.

 

My dd was babysitting in one of the highest cost areas of the country. For the most part, she babysat one kid, occasionally. He was a special needs kid and she related very well to him. This is what the mother offered and both of us thought it was a fair wage. Unlike another parent from whom she babysat once- three kids, less per hour. She wouldn;t babysit for them again.

 

Also, in the area where she was babysitting, no jobs were offering less than around 10 an hour. That was the entry level wage, even if not mandated. Around here, the wages are lower. Many jobs start at or near min. wage and substitute teachers only get 10 an hour. I consider that very low pay for teaching and it certainly isn't enough to entice me to do it in a few years when I am done with homeschooling. Too low paying for a very stressful job.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

Babysitting rates in our area are crazy. DD makes $9.00 at each of her PT jobs. The babysitters wanted $10 an hour. How in the world do 'they' expect DD to pay more for babysitting than she makes?

We also are struggling to pay sitters for when DD is in class and not making any money.

 

We just don't see how some of these girls are doing it. Unless there is some government program picking up the tab for daycare or babysitters...???

[Arcadia]

Unless there is some government program picking up the tab for daycare or babysitters...???

 

 

I know friends who offset part of the cost by making use of the IRS child and dependent care credit.

[Catwoman]

$14.00 an hour is less than we'd have to pay for a babysitter here. (That would be for an occasional evening babysitter, not a fulltime-while-mom-works kind of sitter. I have no idea how much they charge, but I know the fulltime rates are cheaper.)

[Ottakee]

WOW. When I was babysitting I got $1-1.50/hour when minimum wage was $3. Now they are saying babysitters are getting almost double minimum wage? I got about 1/2 of minimum wage and often that was for 3,4,5 or more kids that I would feed, play with, pick up with, bathe and put to bed. That was the norm for our area.

Seems like this article is talking more about nannies, who a adults. I'd expect to pay them a lot more than the neighborhood teenagers.

[TravelingChris]

Lots of things have changed, Ottakee. First of all, few teens work anymore. It is for a few reasons- one, in many areas there are either no jobs or so many adults looking for jobs that they hire adults, not teens. Secondly, in some neighborhoods, like the kind I live in, all the teens are very heavily scheduled with both academics and extracurriculars. Much more so than I remember when I was in high school, in a similar neighborhood. So there aren't many teens or young adults even willing to work as babysitters. Remember, birth rates in this country have dropped dramatically and particularly in those high price areas. It wasn't just a problem getting teens to babysit. In the DC area neighborhood we lived in, our pool ended up getting Serbian lifeguards- older, more dependable, and not flighty as the teens tended to be. The only reason we could do that was because there was a shortage of teens/young adults willing to work as lifeguards. Too many teens wanted to take time off in the summer to go to camps, schools, college viewing trips, or what have you.

[QueenCat]

Seems like this article is talking more about nannies, who a adults. I'd expect to pay them a lot more than the neighborhood teenagers.

 

It looks like it compares nannies and regular sitters. I know my sister pays her teen sitter $12/hour. This sitter just comes for nights out with her husband and other occasional events. If my sister tried to pay less, no one would come. Well, at least not someone she would want. She lives in Northern Virginia.

[sassenach]

We live near sf and my daughter makes BANK babysitting. My teenage self is jealous.

[chepyl]

I pay teen babysitter $5-8 per hour. Most charge $5. I had a mom tell me not to pay her daughters more than $5. I am in Oklahoma.

[vonfirmath]

In eastern Texas, my sister paid $5/hr for one kid and $10/hr for three kids within the last few years.

 

We go to a drop-in daycare and pay $7.50/hr for the first kid and $5.50/hr for the second kid. We can get cheaper rates by buying packs of hours up front.

 

We paid $125/wk for all week care for one child and $180/wk for two at a in home sitter last year. (Then we moved too far away from her)

Our current center for DD (19 months) is $180/wk and DS's after school is $210/mo.

[AnIslandGirl]

I like that the study broke it down between babysitters and nannies. There is such a difference in an occasional sitter and someone who you trust your children's lives with day in and day out. Around here, most nannies (and manies) are salaried with medical insurance and 2 weeks or more vacation time written in their contract, so although the per hour rate may be around $15 or so when broken down, it works out to be more once you include benefits.

 

Many local teens love to babysit as they are not tied down to a regular schedule and can still fit in social activities wile making bank!

[GSOchristie]

We are in NC, in a city, and we pay $10 an hour for all three kids. Our sitter is a junior at a local college majoring in Elementary Ed. My dh shot her wedding, and we traded $3500 worth of babysitting at $10.